The American Economic History

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Native Americans lived in the Northern America before the arrival of European. There were several hundred nations and tribes in the lower region of 48 states with different language and culture. The nation consisted of different tribes each with varieties of clans. These clans believed to have descended from a common ancestor that had characteristics of a particular animal. Having stayed in the region for thousand years, they adapted to the characteristics of the environment which enabled them to earn their living. Among the activities practiced by the Native Americans were farming and hunter-gathering. Women were highly respected since their roles were to bear children, provide home and shelter as well as owning property. They planted crops and provided food for their families. Women could not become priest but their thoughts and opinions were highly respected by the counsel. Native American marriages were more of partnerships. Women had a choice to divorce their husbands and even marry more than once in their lifetime.

When the European arrived the Native American fought strongly and hard to ensure that they preserve their culture. The Native Americans and the colonist traded goods with one another. The colonists were amazed with the beautiful pelts and hats made by the Native Americans and for this reason the Native traded fur for kettle, guns and other metal goods. This made the colonist see them to business people. The colonists never interacted directly with the Native Americans since they thought of being better than them. The way in which the colonist first met with the Native Americans affected their relation with one another. When the village was attacked by the Native Americans, then the colonists thought of them being dangerous and unfriendly and therefore should be killed (George, 2003). If the Native helped them think about thanksgiving story then they thought of being okay but never equal with them. The Native tried to fight for land but they were always defeated.

In the early decades of America, there was a retarded growth brought by high death rates due to diseases and attack from Indians. There was also imbalance in the number of men and women. Most of men settled in the region were bought from England and Scotland to work in the tobacco farms. The tobacco industry required extensive labor system which initially was not available to solve the labor shortage. Several methods were attempted to solve this problem among them being slavery, head right systems and indentured servants. The first African arrived to Virginia in 1619 where they were not held as slaves for life and had the same status as white indentured servants. The early colonists were struggling to survive making it difficult for them poor to purchase Africans who were imported to provide slave labor for sugar plantations in the West Indies.

In 1660, Virginia House enacted laws that discrimination between blacks and whites. Africans and their offspring were to be treated lifelong slaves while the white laborers were to be set free after a certain period of time. Increase demand of slaves was due to reduced migration brought by increase in wages in England. This reduced the supply of immigrants to the colonies. Dependable work force where they thought that slavery would provide a stable labor force totally under their control. Lastly as tobacco prices fell, rice became the profitable crops. Growing such crops successfully required a large area and a large number of inexpensive and relatively unskilled field hands. Christian ministry was the only profession to enjoy a widespread respect among the common people. In the head right system, each immigrant who paid for his own passage was provided 50 acres of land and also to any plantation owner who paid for the immigrant’s passage. Indentured servants agreed to work under contract for four to seven years where they were under rule of their masters for a certain period of time. After the expiration of the period they gained their freedom and could work for wages and could own land.

During the antebellum period economic policy was geared towards establishing American dominance and control over Native American land and turning it into surplus producing farmland. The British and the American colonists prevailed in war making the British Empire to have an authority over all main lands North America east of the Mississippi river except for Florida. By this time British were free from the interference of European rivals and therefore strengthening its development and exploitation of American colonies. The British colonist supported an economic policy of expansion and settlement in the Native American land. Their major goal was to ensure that North America played a big role in the trade patterns in the empire. This inconvenienced the settlement on the Native American land by creating potential conflicts that could easily disrupt the establishment of trade patterns between Britain and its colonies. To prevent this, the British government issued the proclamation of 1763, which prohibited the colonists from settling on much of the land of which the Britain had much control of it. This directly contradicted with the desires and expectation of the American colonist.

The British began to tighten up the enforcement of the mercantilist policies which ensured that the trading between the American colonists and Britain worked in such a way that it favored Britain. Earlier British government had established navigation act laws to accomplish this. The enforcement of these laws had been lax because previous generation of British officials held an attitude of neglect toward their new world possessions. These measures were designed to limit the type of products that were produced by the colonists. It forced the colonist to provide surplus raw materials for export and to import manufactured goods and agricultural products that could not be produced by the British. This shows that the American colonists were exploited by the British before the American Revolution.